Free Alice in La La Land by Sophie Lee

position on the floor. The tiles were cool under her back.
    'Oh, okay. I thought maybe it was, like, mineral water
or something. Start getting undressed there, commander,' she instructed, stepping over Alice and turning on the bath taps.
    'I'm going to grab my lines so I can learn while I'm in there,' Alice grunted, sitting up. She was not sufficiently ill to give up on the evening's task.
    'You Aussies are tough,' Shauna said admiringly. The bath was shallow and she turned off the taps. 'Apparently you'll feel better if you get into the bath for a bit.' Shauna watched Alice stand up and begin to undress. 'I'll be real quick,' she assured her, closing the back door. Alice could hear how swiftly she ran down the back steps and wondered how she managed it in her high heels.

5
    . . . if you drink from a bottle marked 'poison', it is
almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
    Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    Alice sat in the shallow bath trying not to panic. She could tell her heart-rate was elevated and could hear it drumming away in her right ear. Panicking seemed to aggravate her rash and she willed herself to breathe slowly through her nostrils. In the dim fluorescent light of the bathroom, her skin looked as though it belonged to a prehistoric animal. At least the light did not fully reveal the filth in the bath. Alice suspected that neither Neville nor Shauna had ever used the tub, and the spores of mould supported this intuition. Alice inspected the green scum around the rim and wished she had a little toothbrush so she could scrub at it. Her bottom lip throbbed uncomfortably and her desire to clean the bathroom was overcome by panic. The tingling in her face was becoming more pronounced and her breathing sounded shallow and raspy. She looked at her watch. Shauna had been gone just over half an hour. Alice closed her eyes.
    For some reason, she found herself thinking about the way Conrad's fringe caught in his eyes when he blinked and wondered if he'd managed to give up smoking. Apart from sending him an email about the funds owing, she'd
left him alone. If he didn't have the money, what was the use of chasing him? Clearly he wasn't missing her. This thought cut through Alice's core.
    She remembered taking her position in the darkness of the prompt side of the stage on opening night of Citrus Days of the Marzipan Pig , her adrenalin coursing like petrol in her veins. Flick, her closest friend from drama school, liked to remind her that the amount of adrenalin an actor produces on an opening night was equal to that of someone in a car accident. She stood in the narrow passageway beside the stage, inhaling the scent of sawdust while she waited for her cue. There were only seconds until blackout. The theatre was intimate, one hundred and fifty seats, and in her position Alice could make out the pre-show chatter. She tried to put faces with the words.
    '. . . brave of him to attempt it . . .' Theatre critic and Conrad supporter.
    'Is my mobile switched off?' Conrad's mum. When did she get a mobile phone?
    'Malteser?' Theatre patron with the munchies. Possibly Flick, although she hadn't RSVP'd.
    'Who's she? I've seen her in something . . . such a big round face . . .' Some bitch who should have known better than to make personal remarks just before the play commenced.
    Alice had done some deep breathing. Nothing she heard could break her concentration. She was in the zone. She rubbed her fingertips together in the dark. The crowd had gone silent and her tiny green cue light began to blink. Although completely blind, she managed to glide to her starting position on the stage in the blackout. The set
was an airline cabin, and Alice was seated and fastening
her seatbelt as the lights came up.
    'Nuts?' asked a flight attendant.
    Small snickers from the audience. Good, thought Alice, they're on-side.
    'Excuse me, I didn't get a headset.' Her knee stopped trembling. Now that her first line was out, the